In Chapter four under the Psychology of Deception, I found it very interesting that the majority of the time we think we understand something, we acually "get the facts wrong more often than we think we do." (pg. 69) We get them wrong in predictable ways too such as wishful thinking and we allow ourselves to understand what we want to understand and disregard the facts that go against our beliefs.
Something I also found interesting in the text was that over-hyped crimes and tramatic events sprawled all over the media make us feel like things are worse than they actually are. The example that I liked in the book was on page 70 where some crimes were exposed in the media and it forced viewers to jump to conclusions that crime rates are high and criminals are running around everywhere, however, the reality was crime rates were down thirty eight percent from 1991 in 2005. This reminded me of the example I made in class where my step-brothers and step sister believed that all American schools experienced a shooting of some type because the media hyped them up, however, the in retrospect to the amount of schools in the USA, there weren't a large number of them.
All in all, this chapter showed me that the brain deceives us into what our subconcious wants us to think and feel even if that feeling isn't right or correct in reality.
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I agree with you that it's interesting that we so often think we understand things when we don't, simply because we want to give ourselves the gift of satisfaction by letting ourselves think we do. It's unfortunate that we live in a society that is so media-saturated because we are then more able to fall right into the trap of such groups like the news industry, who profit from creating hype and making us think crime is rampant even when it's not, or advertising companies, who try to make you think their product is better than it is. The best we can hope to do is to be constantly aware and hope that we can overcome the natural shortcuts that act more like impediments in guiding us to the truth.
ReplyDeleteI remember you telling that example in class, and it relates directly to this entire chapter and the notion that we are wired to think irrationally and in stereotypes and to crave certainty. The cult followers believed what they wanted to. They believed what made them feel sure, hopeful, and maybe even better or smarter than the average person. Not only do we have to face the tricks advertisements impose, but we also need to understand our own psychological deceptions.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you that the media often hypes crime events up. Everytime you turn on the news, there are stories of crime. I confess, when I moved here, I did a crime search of West Chester on watchdog.org and the amount of crimes I saw mapped out in West Chester was alarming. However, I failed to recognize that West Chester and the surrounding areas make up a large percent of population. When you put those crimes in perspective to the local population, you find that's it's really not that bad.
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